McCloud Reading Response.

Before you read : I have always been a cinderella fan. I connect with her because she is a hopeless romantic, she is a hard worker and true to herself.  She also is a normal girl waiting to find happiness, I know that is probably every girls dream but I can relate to it.  Lastly she talks to the mice like her friends, growing up i had a stuffed mouse that I carried everywhere.

Summary: In McClouds article Vocabulary of Comics, he uses the comic character to make points about images, icons, symbols, ideas of reality and cartoon fiction. On page 4 he has many images that when we look at them we think of that is ... a person, a leaf, a cow, a sound, a planet, but really they are just images of these things. He also talks about how humans see pattens of faces every where and how we try to make the world see us the way we see us. When really we never see our face at all. we can only think of what our face looks like.

Synthesis: McClouds article/ comic is very different in style when compared to Kantz, at the same time I feel you could connect the two, Kantz talks about what is really fact and what is opinion, and McCloud talks about how we see our selves and how others see us. They both walk a fine line between  reality and fiction.


#2 McCloud expresses his thoughts using the comic as a visual tool, Its much easier to understand his ideas with pictures. for instance when he is talking about how cartoons are a simplified version of human realistic images, it made more since to see the break down of specific details in the picture versus just reading about them.  Also I think that if this article was just in words it would loose its humours effect. The cartoon narrative has a funny persona that keeps the reader engaged and interested in the subject.

AE#1 I think teaching strategies should include visuals, personally I am a visual learner, If I a concept drawn out or an example of what im suppose to be learning and doing myself it helps a lot. The benefits would understanding the material more clearly, resulting in higher quality work or paper instead of something that sounds confusing.

AE#2 McCloud says that as humans we are more likely to see our selves as cartoon figures rather than resemble real humans because we think we look a certain way which is different from the way other people perceive us.  I have looked at a photograph, or a painting and identified with the subjects in the image because of the activities they were participating in or the feelings they were depicting that I could relate to.

AE#4 McClouds concept of the mask makes since, because you dont see you face when you are out with friends, you can only imagine what it looks like based on what you know about the features on your face and what you tell it to do, whether that be to smile or wink or raise your eyebrows.  I think it could change my perception of me, I think sometimes you feel like your making a funny face when your really not. and vise versa so maybe not being as conscious of that. I don't think it will change my perceptions of others. lastly the question would you be able to be aware of others without your mask. Im not sure what exactly that means so I dont know. my guess would be no because if your mask included your eyes,nose, and ears, you would never be able to since other people.

Thoughts: I liked the way McCloud used the comics I was able to understand his points clearer with reference to the pictures. also i thought the comic narrator used humor, I actually caught myself laughing a little. I liked McCloud because he brought an interesting idea about how we as humans perceive ourselves differently than others do. Also he makes a point that humans try to find faces in inanimate objects. This was interesting because it is true, I always see faces in objects that aren't faces.